After the controversy DigiProtect, now it’s the turn of a Norwegian Supreme Court to hear the plea of a movie which was illicitly cam corded and placed on the net.

Max Manus is a Norwegian World War 2 movie which was released in 2008. the movie revolves around the real-life events of Max Manus, a resistance fighter. This film made history in Norway,for its most expensive production of NOK 55,000,000.

However an illicit copy of the film was being downloaded through the internet as it seems that a recording made in am empty theater was released for free pirating via the internet. The immediate culprit was suspected to be the projectionist, as per the producer M. Jacobsen

“I think this is totally reprehensible, and I wish we knew who is behind it,” Jacobsen told Norwegian media. “Anyway we will go after those who have done this quite mercilessly. There are ways to track these things down.”

Thus an investigation was prompted by Filmkameratene Studio with the help of the famous pirate hunter Espen Tondel siding with Simonsen Law Firm. The technician had a tough job to perform by seeping through every copy (that actually means checking 103 analog and 20 digital copies) of the movie sent to find a match.

Their hard work was rewarded as the correct copy was traced as well as the IP address from where the movie was initially uploaded to the Internet. And then things flew into place.

The police was informed and the law firm Simonsen asked for things to be taken to court.

Established in 2006, Simonsen holds a license to control pirates and find their IP addresses and they would demand that the identities of these particular IP addresses are handed over to them for further legal actions. The Norwegian Telecom authority had a special exception to the country’s Privacy Act to give away the identity of a person to a group apart from police force with the permission of the court.

On May 5th 2009, Simonsen received the decision from the court. However the verdict was kept a secret from the public. Espen Tondel said this was to prevent the possibility of evidence being leaked. This lack of transparency caused an uproar to be against the Right to Information, with loads of the of Internet extended family joining hand to demand the knowledge of the verdict in what they say to be the most important case. 9 months down the lane, the verdict still remains a mystery

“I can confirm that the case is being appealed to the Supreme Court, but I can not confirm which of the parties has submitted the appeal, as that may indicate what the results were in the previous hearing,” explained industry lawyer Rune Ljostad.

The ball lies in the Supreme court to pass its decision on whether private companies such as DigiProtect, which have a business gain from such legal acts, are to be given power to acquire identity of an Internet subscriber behind an IP address, whether they are active or inactive in illicit offenses of downloading or uploading pirated movies.

The facts of Max Manus:

NOK 200 million from the sale of 1.16 million tickets.

DVD sale : 400, 000 copies in 2009.

So, as can be statistically proven despite the leak on the Internet, the movie did amazingly well and was a Smash hit at the box office! It has broken all records in Norway!

What is left to wonder is with whom will the Supreme Court side?

Will it be another face-off for the Pirate Slayer (just like DigiProtect)?

now they are violating our rights to infomations,these are signs of desperations,they know they lost the battle,right now there must be over a billion pirates working,so it's gonna be hard to stop us...get over it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!